July | 2019 | Planting Diaries

The Scarlet Bean from Augustin Heckel’s Drawing Book for Young Ladies (1757)

Unlikely as it might seem today, the humble runner bean was grown in eighteenth century gardens alongside roses, carnations and jasmine for the beauty of its red flowers rather than for a crop of bean pods. Now considered a vegetable and consigned to the allotment, the decorative history of this plant has been forgotten, but evidence of the Scarlet Bean’s previous role in flower borders can be found in certain books from the Georgian period.

The German artist Augustin Heckel (1690 – 1770) worked in England for the majority of his life, and was an accomplished flower painter. In 1757 he published The Florist, or, an extensive and curious Collection of Flowers for the imitation of Young Ladies, either in Drawing or in Needlework, containing colour engravings of desirable garden plants. The Scarlet Bean appears right at the end of the book, next to a flower stem of tuberose.

In The City Gardener (1722) Thomas Fairchild mentions the Scarlet-Bean as being suitable for planting in London squares. He notes that if there is sufficient circulation of air around the flower beds the annual beans, along with the Great Convolvulus, can deal with the pollution from the city’s coal fires (a reminder that air quality in the capital is far from being a new issue).

‘The Scarlet-Bean, so call’d from the Colour of its Flowers, makes a fine Appearance when it is in Blossom; the Spikes of Flowers are petty long, and well set; and if they have Liberty, and a Support from their beginning to grow, will hold flowering several Months.’

Although we might think of the runner bean as a quintessentially English plant, Phaseolus coccineus originates from the forests of central America, where in frost free conditions it is perennial. According to the Royal Horticultural Society the bean was introduced into Spain by Columbus, from where it eventually spread across Europe. It was known in England in the 17th century, and is mentioned in a list of plants grown at Tradescant’s London nursery in 1634.

There is some evidence that plants from these early seeds did not produce many beans, which might explain why Fairchild doesn’t mention removing the pods to prolong flowering. As the runner bean was developed through breeding programmes as an edible crop for northern latitudes, with longer pods and tolerance to shorter day lengths, its popularity as a decorative plant in England seems to have waned.

But maybe the Scarlet Bean is now due a flower bed revival – in some of our period gardens perhaps?

Augustin Heckel’s Drawing Book for Young Ladies (1757)

The Scarlet Bean with Tuberose, Foxglove and Valerian

Heckel shows how to draw a simplified shape of the flower and add detail in stages. He stylises the flower stems slightly into decorative scroll shapes.

Interesting to see how the hyacyinth is relatively naturalistic compared with the columnar shape of today’s varieties.

Further reading:

The Florist by Augustin Heckel 1757

Augustin Heckel

RHS on Runner Beans

Front cover – Derek Jarman’s Garden with photographs by Howard Sooley (Thames & Hudson (1995)

Earlier this month, as a mark of appreciation for the artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman (1942 – 1994) who died twenty five years ago, BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week featured readings from his journal Modern Nature, published in 1991.

These daily excerpts read by Rupert Everett reminded me what a good diarist Jarman was, recording his daily life with candour, unafraid to reveal his strong opinions and moments of bad temper as well as happier events and encounters. He also understands the power of a few details to sketch a place or person, and fix an image in the mind. By means of this intimate narrative the reader is included in his life, which probably accounts for the great affection still felt for Jarman today.

One of his many enthusiasms was for plants and his final book, Derek Jarman’s Garden (1995) discusses the making of an extraordinary garden in Dungeness, on the Kent coast. This vast area of shingle, with its burning sun and biting gales is an unlikely spot for a garden as you are likely to find, but over time and by using a mixture of native plants and other species that could tolerate the conditions, he succeeded in creating a place of rare beauty.

Jarman’s companion Keith Collins recalls that his garden acquired a new meaning after Jarman was diagnosed with HIV. At first the struggle of the plants against the elements mirrored his battle with illness, and eventually it become a memorial for him. Collins notes, ‘the flowers blossomed while Derek faded.’

This book was a collaboration with photographer Howard Sooley who documented the garden in various stages of its development and contributed to it both through his plant knowledge and his ability to drive – transporting Jarman (a non-driver) from London to Dungeness on Fridays and taking him to some of the area’s plant nurseries. His photographs capture perfectly the character of this stark but beautiful landscape.

Jarman talks about the ancient Persian word ‘paradise’ describing ‘a green place’, and this idea of the ‘paradise garden’ is echoed in the semi-formal design at the front of Prospect Cottage where circular and rectangular beds are created. Edged with large flint stones, these are planted with santolina, valerian and crambe, a sort of kale which grows naturally in Dungeness. He describes the layout of the back garden as ‘random’ with plants interspersed with driftwood and rusted metal sculptures, all assembled from objects found on the nearby shoreline.

Jarman prefers gardens to be ‘shaggy’. He doesn’t like the style of National Trust gardens where ‘not one plant seems to touch its neighbour’. He says, ‘If a garden isn’t shaggy, forget it.’ Christopher Lloyd’s garden at Great Dixter is an example of the relaxed style of planting he favours.

Jarman is also a great advocate of allowing nature into the garden, saying:

‘You see it is rather a wild garden; I really recommend this – out with those lawns and in with the stinging nettles and kerbside flowers: bluebells, pinks, purple orchids, drifts of buttercups – subtlety to the eye. .. I would like anyone who reads my book to try this wildness in a corner. It will bring you much happiness.’

Jarman had a great talent for inspiring people and this book, which never minimises the difficulties of growing plants in such an inhospitable landscape, shows us it is possible to create a garden anywhere, no matter how difficult the circumstances.

Prospect Cottage, Dungeness May 2007 (Wikimedia Commons)

Back cover – Derek Jarman’s Garden with photographs by Howard Sooley (Thames & Hudson (1995)

In this photograph the driftwood and metal sculptures in Jarman’s garden seem to be having a conversation with the overhead cables and pylons of the power station in the distance.

With his sharp eye for beautiful things, Jarman acquired a bench similar to the one on which Mrs Andrews sits from a neighbour, after she died. An antique dealer told him it was a rarity – ‘It’s eighteenth century, built for a lady with a pannier.’ Jarman says, ‘You can see my bench in Gainsborough’s Mr and Mrs Andrews.’ Derek Jarman’s Garden 1995.